US cop drama The Rookie is one of the most-streamed shows on TVNZ+. On a recent visit to Aotearoa, star Melissa O\u2019Neil told Tara Ward why she thinks we love it so much.<\/p>\n
New Zealand television viewers can\u2019t get enough of The Rookie. Over the past three years, episodes of the American police drama have been streamed a whopping 38.5 million times on TVNZ+, despite the show being available on multiple platforms. But wait, there\u2019s more \u2013 last year, The Rookie was the number one streamed show on TVNZ+, beating other TV juggernauts shows like 1News, Love Island UK, and even the world\u2019s most beloved cartoon dog, Bluey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This nation\u2019s quiet love for The Rookie comes as a shock for actor Melissa O\u2019Neil, who plays Lucy Chen in the popular series. \u201cI can\u2019t say that I\u2019m a huge fan of Bluey, so I wasn\u2019t familiar with that as a reference for why it was a big deal \u2013 but the streaming numbers are blowing my mind,\u201d she tells The Spinoff. O\u2019Neil was in Aotearoa with her Rookie co-star Lisseth Chavez to attend Armageddon, New Zealand\u2019s largest science fiction and entertainment expo, where she would come face to face with some of the local fans responsible for watching those millions and millions of Rookie episodes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cast of The Rookie (Photo: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
For the few New Zealanders who aren\u2019t streaming The Rookie on repeat, the series follows a group of dedicated officers fighting crime in the gritty streets of Los Angeles. It\u2019s inspired by true events and centres on the personal and professional life of John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), who changes careers in his mid-40s to become the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department. O\u2019Neil plays one of Nolan\u2019s new police colleagues \u2013 and secret girlfriend \u2013 who joins the force on the same day (two of season one\u2019s episodes were directed by New Zealand filmmaker Toa Fraser).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each week, The Rookie sees the dedicated LAPD officers pushed to their limits as they deal with a series of unpredictable challenges in their efforts to uphold the law. In many ways, the show is a traditional police procedural series in a crowded TV landscape of bigger budget, bingeable TV shows \u2013 so what is it about this American weekly cop drama that has New Zealand fans streaming its episodes so many times?<\/p>\n
For Canadian-raised O\u2019Neil, the answer is simple: it\u2019s much more than just a show about fighting crime. \u201cAt the heart of it, The Rookie is about a group of people who have become a family,\u201d she says. The series has a little bit of everything \u2013 action, romance, comedy, intrigue \u2013 and O\u2019Neil believes this combination of dynamic relationships and explosive adventure means The Rookie has universal appeal. \u201cWe hear all the time that \u2018I watch this with my grandma\u2019, or three generations are coming around to watch. It\u2019s enjoyable for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo: TVNZ<\/p>\n
In the eight seasons that O\u2019Neil has played the ambitious Lucy Chen, she too has experienced a little bit of everything. Her character has been shot, kidnapped, drugged, locked in a barrel and buried alive. She\u2019s fought crime as an undercover officer, risen through the ranks to become sergeant, delivered a baby while under siege, and even once accidentally auditioned for American Idol<\/a>. That particular episode blurred the lines between fact and fiction for O\u2019Neil, who began her performing career in 2005 when she won Canadian Idol at the age of 17<\/a> \u2013 a life-changing experience she describes as \u201ca really weird summer camp\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n The show\u2019s universal appeal is also helped by social media, where The Rookie enjoys huge popularity with young people. The show has 3.3 million followers on TikTok<\/a>, many of whom are teens who discovered the show not on their TV screens, but through clipped moments shared online (The Rookie went on to be the most streamed broadcast show for teens<\/a> in America last year). \u201cThe show has found an entirely new audience through TikTok,\u201d O\u2019Neil says, adding that she loves to plant sneaky clues in her TikTok videos to keep the show\u2019s dedicated fans guessing. \u201cOur fans are really smart, and they pay attention very closely.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Winning over audiences in New Zealand was never something O\u2019Neil anticipated when she put on Lucy Chen\u2019s police uniform as a fresh-faced rookie in 2018. In fact, it\u2019s been a welcome surprise for O\u2019Neil to discover just how beloved The Rookie is on this side of the world. \u201cI don\u2019t think we have a reference for how successful the show is,\u201d O\u2019Neil says of life as an actor in the US. \u201cThose are closely guarded state secrets. When we\u2019re in LA, they don\u2019t tell us those things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Neil has relished playing the same character for eight years in a show that continues to surprise and delight its fans, and hints that New Zealand audiences can look forward to a particularly dramatic season eight finale. \u201cWe drop off in a place that makes me very eager to see the next script, because I want to know what happens with Lucy,\u201d she teases. Millions more streams of The Rookie lie ahead, with spinoff The Rookie: North<\/a> in the works and a ninth season<\/a> of The Rookie recently announced. The long-running series shows no signs of slowing down \u2013 which is exactly what O\u2019Neil wants.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been such a joy to grow with Lucy,\u201d O\u2019Neil says. \u201cI\u2019m having a blast. I just hope it goes on and on and on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rookie streams on TVNZ+ and screens on Mondays at 8.30pm on TVNZ2.<\/p>\nPhoto: TVNZ<\/p>\n